Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is considering sending her foreign minister to the July NATO summit in Turkey in her place, reportedly so she can attend to legislative matters ahead of the July 17 end of the Diet session, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on June 25. This comes after six opposition parties in the upper house on June 23 stated they would reject policy discussions until Takaichi agreed to debate party leaders over a growing election scandal.

A local tabloid recently published audio files of an aide to Takaichi allegedly discussing the making of artificial intelligence videos to defame her opponents during the October 2025 leadership election for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. So far, Takaichi has denied the allegations and dodged Diet requests to address the matter in depth.